Ambient office = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Romaine lettuce from Central Market = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 53 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 121 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 123 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 61 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 107 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 109 nanosieverts per hour

Mini Bella mushroom from Central Market =108 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 65 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole = 103 nanosieverts per hour

Part 5 of 5 Parts (Please read Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 first)
     Ultimately, the trajectory of nuclear power in the U.S. will affect how wind, solar, batteries and fossil fuels are used in the coming decades. Liz Coyle of Georgia Watch has pointed out that while the cost of the Vogtle project has doubled during the seven-year delay, the price, the price of renewable energy, including storage, has dropped. Going forward, she has argued that Georgia Power should compare the cost of planned generation with not only combined-cycle natura gas but also with renewable options such as utility-scale solar and long-term agreements to purchase wind power. Coyle said, “This argument that, ‘Well, it’s reliable, it’s low-cost, it’s carbon-free,’ then why are we still comparing it to combined-cycle natural gas? There are now significantly more cost-effective renewable energy options than any of us anticipated back in the day when Vogtle 3 and 4 were certified.”
     Southern remains a unwavering proponent of nuclear power. The company announced plans last November to construct a small, experimental reactor in Idaho using technology from TerraPower. The TerraPower Natrium demonstration plant is being partially financed by a DoE private-public partnership that is a fifty-fifty cost share for up to four billion dollars. The project is utilizing high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Developers argue that this will allow smaller reactor designs to have longer operating cycles and increase efficiency. TerraPower said, “The demonstration project will validate our construction approach, establish our supply chain, build our fuel fabrication facility, and help encourage domestic HALEU enrichment capabilities. This will significantly reduce future costs for additional projects.”
      The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) gets more than forty percent of its electricity from nuclear power. They want to build an SMR at the Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
       The DoE is also partnering with California-based Kairos Power LLC to giver design expertise as well as  guidance in securing a federal license for a fifteen megawatt demonstration salt-cooled high-temperatures reactor.
     Jeff Lyash is the CEO of the TVA. He has been outspoken about wanting the federal government’s assistance in TVA’s potential SMR project. This is a cluster of smaller reactors that would be more easily dispatchable and incorporated in a modernized grid that support distributed generation as well as other next-generation reactors. Lyash said, “Because if we don’t have that line of sight, we need to go in another direction, because we need to go 10 years out.” He made this comment in June of 2021 with respect to the long-term planning, licensing and construction process needed for nuclear projects.
     The Energy Act of 2020 authorized two advanced reactor demonstration projects as well as allocating funds for nuclear fusion research. The new infrastructure law funds a series of clear energy demonstration projects such as advanced nuclear and puts money aside for a DoE credit program meant to be a lifeline for struggling reactors. A bipartisan bill in the House would waive Nuclear Regulatory Commissions licensing fees for advanced nuclear fission power reactors.

Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Crimini mushroom from Central Market = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 101 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Part 4 of 5 Parts (Please read Parts 1, 2 and 3 first)
     There are many who do not see advanced nuclear, including SMRs, as being the best option for zero carbon power generation.
      Tim Fox is a vice president and research analyst with ClearView Energy Partners LLC. He said, “The Biden administration has made clear that advanced nuclear power can and should play a role — perhaps one day a substantial one — in its efforts to achieve 100% carbon-free generation by 2035. We would characterize this position as pragmatic greening: centrist proposals that deviate from progressive orthodoxy that generally supports non-hydro renewable power over nuclear.”
     The Georgia Vogtle project continues to be shorthand for the expansion of nuclear power in the U.S. That is partly because it is more common to hear policy makers debate nuclear retirements that massive new reactors. As the first set of new nuclear power reactors in almost thirty years, Vogtle is the most recent frame of reference. The nearly thirty-billion-dollar price tag overshadows the project’s achievements, according to engineers and analysts working with the GPSC staff.
     Officials from Southern often argue that Vogtle’s AP1000 reactors will be economic in the long run when compared to natural gas forecasts. However, this may take sixty to eighty years to happen. The five state utility regulators also agree with that statement. Stephen Kuczynski is the CEO of Southern Nuclear. He said, “So some of the design requirements are very, very strict and very unique to nuclear installations. That’s kind of what helps make these plants so robust. That’s why they operate 24/7 for 60, 80 years.” 
     However, members of the GPSC’s advocacy group said that the electric company is wrong. Tom Newsome, Philip Hayet and Lane Kollen are GPSC staff and consultants. Last December, they testified that “The company grossly under-estimated the costs of Vogtle 3 and 4 in its filings and testimony to the commission during at least the first 12 years of the project.”
     Until the new Vogtle reactors start up, the project cannot receive highly coveted federal production tax credits. The deadline for the tax credit application was December of 2020 but it was extended past that deadline when it became clear that the new Vogtle reactors would not be finished by then. The tax credits, federal loan guarantees and customer payments covering Vogtle’s costs were part of the reason that Georgia Power argued that it would be cheaper for Georgia to build nuclear power in the long run.
     The GPSC staff and consultants said that that is not the case anymore. This holds true event considering financial models that forecast natural gas prices as high as twenty dollars a ton and carbon prices at ten dollars at ton. They wrote that, “Carbon dioxide emissions charges do not make the units economic, and the units are still significantly uneconomic versus alternative combine-cycle generation.”
     The two new reactors at Vogtle are so close to completion that the GPSC’s advocacy staff says that it is more economic to finish the projects because costs are now going down. However, the economic benefit is small because of how much it has cost to construct the new reactors to date. Liz Coyle is the executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer advocacy group. She said, “It’s jaw-dropping,”
Please read Part 5 next